Hot New Facilities in Front of Cutler Student Center

Students enjoying one of the fire pits after dark. Photo by Caleb Arthur

OLIVET- The University of Olivet is home to a brand new building, and with the building comes some new amenities for students to use. Directly out front of the building are some of these new amenities, including two fire pits, and lights to illuminate the area at night. 

“The official name is [an] Electric Ignition Fire Pit Insert,” said Michael Sailor, director of facilities management, “The design was based off similar designs used at other Universities and was aimed to encourage group use.”

BSU hosts a s'mores night in front of Cutler Student Center. Photo Credit: Caleb Arthur

“The group thought that it was important to have some sort of outdoor fire feature,” said Ryan Shockey, vice president and chief of staff. “For the students to have access to those outdoor fire pits is a great accessory.”

The controls to the fire pits are located on the wall next to the seating area. 

KayDee Perry, associate provost for student development shared how to start the fire, “How I know it’s set up correctly is, the gas on the button is lit up. You hit that, and wait about a minute,” Perry shared what will happen next, “In a minute or so, that’s going to light up. It is now set on a two hour timer. After that, it’s going to shut off automatically.”

She also pointed to the silver poles with lights hanging from them on either side of the fire pit areas, “These silver poles are made for hammocks,” said Perry. 

“Those [poles] have eyelets on them, so you can take your hammocks up there and hook them to the eyelets, and just hang out with your friends, enjoy the outdoors, and hopefully all through the day and late into night just enjoying the space and being outdoors in Michigan,” said Shockey. 

“We want it to be a place that students can casually hang out,” said Perry. 

By Caleb Arthur, Maggie Berner and Quinn Dickerson